In 2004, at a Hungarian military academy based in Budapest, Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani Army Lieutenant, got into an argument with an Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan. Margaryan allegedly insulted Safarov by spitting on the flag of Azerbaijan. In the night, Safarov saw his chance, grabbed an axe and stabbed Margaryan over and over in his sleep until he bled to death – a cold killing realized by ethnic motivations. The irony being… they were attending a NATO Partnership for Peace training programme.

In 1989, the American political scientist, Francis Fukuyama, published an essay in which he claimed that mankind’s ideological evolution had come to an end with the universalization and ultimate triumph of Western liberal democracy.